November 2010 – Page 11 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Compare and Contrast

This shows the difference between how gun people think versus how other people think better than anything I’ve seen in a long while. The article is in the local paper for Pottstown, Pennsylvania, about a recent shootout in one of their bad neighborhoods. One resident:

And how do you suppose we “take a stand”? They have guns!! We are supposed to depend on law enforcement for protection but there are just too many kids, punks, drug dealing slime balls in this town for them to keep up. My kids know if they hear a gunshot to get to the floor and then crawl to the middle of the house. Unfortunately I can’t move right now and that is the reality of a lot of people in this town. Until they get the drugs off the streets in this town the guns will stay out there and I for one can’t stand up to a gun.

To which I was thinking “So get yourself a gun, and start calling the cops on the drug dealers and gangs. If the cops won’t do anything start a community patrol to kick them off the corners.” Someone else commented:

You Pottstown people need to come out of your submissive shells, and turn the lights on , on these cockroaches. So what if they have guns. Outsmart them, arm yourselves, learn how to shoot. The more of these dirtballs that take a bullet in the skull by Joe citizen protecting himself, they will take the hint and vanish.

That’s a key difference. They want the government to fix the problem, and we value individual initiative.

Mystery Missile

Looks like an ICBM to me. Best case it was a secret launch. Worst case it’s a Chinese missile designed to show us that they can hit us by surprise if they want to. Obviously it would have had to have been aimed away from the US so it would be apparent quite quickly it’s not an attack. Normally we wouldn’t do that kind of launch without informing the Russians, lest they get a little restless with their finger on the button. Scientists are saying it’s just a jetliner with a contrail, but that doesn’t compute if you look at the video. The trail wiggles like you’d expect a missile to, and jets normally don’t have glowing balls of fire coming out of their tails.

UPDATE: Someone on MSNBC is saying perhaps it’s an LDRS.

Life Under the Bridge

Looks like we’re talking about trolls on the blogsphere today. Does talking about trolls count as feeding them? I’m not sure. It’s been amazing to me the amount of time people will spend battling off the troll, when passing over the bridge quickly is probably the most prudent course of action. The troll revels in conflict. It is his purpose.

One Step Ahead of You Megan

Megan McArdle notes on gold fever:

I’m going to dispute the notion that gold is a good hedge against the apocalypse. Â In the event that the US economy melts down so far that buying gold was a good alternative to holding US dollars, then buying canned goods, ammunition, and medical supplies was an even better alternative to gold. Â The only scenario I can think of in which it makes sense to stockpile a lot of gold is one where you and your household goods are unexpectedly teleported into the sixteenth century. Â If you worry a lot about this, then by all means, stockpile gold. Â But you should also probably take the precaution of stockpiling antibiotics and how-to books on dentistry.

I currently have no gold holdings, largely because I’ve been worried about it being a bubble. Of course, I’ve been thinking that since 2005, which had I invested all my money in gold then, I would have doubled it. But I’m wary of buying at the top of a bubble. I would never have the courage to hold gold long term.

I’ve never understood the libertarian fascination with the gold standard. Currently our currency is worth money because the government says it is. Libertarians have long wanted money backed up by gold. But what backs up gold? It’s never seemed to be a good idea to have your money supply dependent on something you have to mine from the ground.

Gold may be a good hedge against inflation, perhaps, but my inclination will be to pump my current cash reserves into the primary asset that is my house if inflation takes off. I need a new kitchen, a new shower, a good bit of exterior work, new driveway, and a once over of the yard by a Â decent landscaper.

As for preparing for total meltdown? Well, I think I have enough guns and ammunition available for barter to take care of myself pretty well.

Alan Gura a Busy Bee

All from John Richardson:Â Gura is calling out the delaying tactics of New York State in the gun permit case. A federal judge sides with SAF in this one. Gura has also filed a Motion for Summary Judgement in the North Carolina case.

Why Am I Not Surprised …

Dennis Henigan finds this self-congratulatory article appealing? Both sides are guilty of the exact same things they accuse the other side of, they just manifest themselves in different ways. People are, for the most part, irrational emotional beings. As much as some might want to claim their side is full of thoughtful, rational, people, can I promise you if your movement isn’t composed of Vulcans, that’s not the case.

E-Mail

I just realized my blog e-mail has been broken for several days because I had the wrong machine in my MX record. If you sent me an e-mail to which I did not respond, I apologize. Of course, I’m terrible about responding to e-mail to begin with.

Using Tax Dollars to Promote Bad Pizza

Clayton Cramer looks at how the USDA program to promote cheese has used our tax dollars to help make bad pizza worse. We’re not gifted with much in the Philly area, but we were fortunate enough to develop a decent local pizza culture. Pizza here is New York style. Chicago pizza is an abomination in the eyes of God. In our area, there is definitely some mighty bad local pizza, but they don’t measure up to the chains in terms of horribleness. Papa John’s and Dominoes are blah. In fact, they are bad pizza, really. Pizza Hut is the worst. If you’re looking for a good chain pizza, this one is my favorite, and beats much of my local selection. I particularly recommend the Margherita pizza.

I am happy to hear my tax dollars have been contributing to the ruining of pizza across this great country. It gives me one more reason to hate the government.

How Brady Manipulates Its Win Percentage

Howard Nemerov takes a detailed look at how Brady manages to twist the numbers to declare victory even after disastrous elections. The truth is that both sides endorse quite a large number of safe seats each election year. The big difference is NRA took a lot more chances this year than the Brady Campaign did. NRA lost in 50 elections this year, 33 of them Democrats. Only twenty of them constituted any loss for gun owners. And finally:

Five new House Republicans earned NRA grades of C or D, and two were Brady-endorsed. Itâ€™s curious that â€œGOP operativesâ€ complain about the NRAâ€™s lack of loyalty to them, while ignoring their own betrayal of the Second Amendment by supporting anti-rights politicians within the party.

Read the whole thing. Gun control took a beating this election, regardless of what issues may have actually motivated it. The Second Amendment has won this election.

Election Results from NRA’s Perspective

John Richardson takes a look at NRA’s assessment of this past week’s election. They maintained an 85% win percentage in the House. I would note that this was with the incumbent friendly policy. This reflects closely our incumbent re-election rate for 2010, which was, last I checked, about 85%. This is historically quite low. In fact, the last time it was this low was 1970. Even when people are as pissed off as they are now, incumbents still win elections.